Chapter 3

Tom threw a Christmas dinner party.

He said it was an office tradition. The new hires and a few of his business partners would all be there.

I reminded him. "The baby just got out of the hospital, I'm still recovering from the birth, and Dad's foot isn't healed yet."

He kept his head down, fastening his cufflink.

"It's just dinner at home. I'm not asking you to go out and entertain clients."

"Then have a restaurant cater it," I said.

Tom let out a short laugh.

"People here love a taste of a real home-cooked family meal. Your parents know how to fold dumplings, don't they? Perfect chance to show off."

I stared at him.

"My parents aren't here to put on a performance for you."

He looked up at me.

"Maggie, you've gotten really ugly to talk to lately."

Yuna slipped in a soft little line. "He just wants your parents to feel included. Old folks get restless and start overthinking when they've got nothing to do."

My mother's head popped out of the kitchen right away.

"It's fine, we'll fold them. Nice to have a little life in the house when guests come."

That afternoon my mother kneaded dough, chopped filling, and rolled out wrappers.

My father sat on a low stool folding dumplings, his hurt foot propped on a cardboard box.

That evening the guests arrived.

Yuna, in a white dress, stood beside Tom greeting people.

Someone asked if she was Mrs. James.

She waved a hand, blushing. "Oh, no. The boss's wife is in the back."

The man glanced toward the kitchen.

I was holding the baby, my mother was carrying out the dumplings, and my father was hauling a basin of dipping sauce.

The man smiled and pressed a bill into my father's hand.

He must have taken him for the hired help.

My father didn't understand and took it, stunned.

Yuna covered her mouth and laughed.

"Sir, he thinks you're one of the staff they hired for the house."

A few people in the living room laughed along.

My father's face went red. He hurried to hand the bill back, but he didn't know how to explain, and could only look awkwardly at Tom.

I looked at Tom too.

I thought he would at least say one thing. This is my father-in-law.

But he only gave a faint smile.

"They do help look after the baby. The house owes them a lot."

He didn't deny it, and he didn't confirm it.

As if my parents really were just two people working here for free.

The hand holding the dumplings gave a single tremble, hot broth splashing across the web of her thumb, and she didn't make a sound.

I handed the baby to my mother and walked up to Tom.

"Introduce them."

Tom frowned.

"What?"

"Tell them who these two people are."

The living room went quiet.

Yuna grabbed my arm at once.

"Please, it was just a joke, don't take it so seriously."

I shook her off.

"You. Shut up."

Yuna's eyes went red instantly.

Tom's face darkened.

"Maggie, in front of the guests, you have to make a scene?"

"I'm making a scene?"

I pointed at the bill in my father's hand.

"Your father-in-law gets tipped like a servant and you don't say a word. My mother gets burned and you don't even notice. And now I'm the one making a scene?"

Tom held his temper down.

"They're outsiders here, they don't understand how our family works. Do you really have to blow it up like this?"

My father hurried to shove the bill onto the table.

"It's fine, it's fine, it doesn't bother me."

The more he said that, the worse I felt.

Yuna sniffled quietly.

"Tom, did I cause you trouble again? I should never have translated that line."

Tom turned to her at once.

"It's not your fault."

Then he turned back to me.

"Apologize to Yuna."

I almost thought I'd misheard.

"What did you say?"

"She was only helping translate, and you just yelled at her."

I laughed.

"Tom, when your parents get mistaken for the help, are you going to make me apologize to someone else first then too?"

His face changed.

"Don't drag my parents into this."

"Why can't I? Because you know your parents are precious, and mine deserve it?"

Tom clamped a hand around my wrist.

"Maggie, that's enough!"

I wasn't far out from the C-section, and when he yanked me the incision flared with a sharp pain.

Cold sweat broke out at once.

My mother screamed. "Maggie!"

Tom froze for a second and let go on reflex.

But Yuna suddenly clutched her chest and swayed on her feet.

"Tom, I can't breathe…"

Tom spun around at once to hold her up.

I braced myself against the table to stay standing and watched him scoop Yuna up and head upstairs.

As Yuna passed me, she said, in a voice only I could hear, "See? Even after you gave him a child, he still holds me first."

I didn't fire anything back.

Because in that moment, something in me went completely calm.

After the guests left, my mother crouched on the floor picking up the pieces of a broken bowl.

My father sat in a chair, still clutching that bill that had been handed back.

He looked at it for a long time, then asked me quietly, "Maggie, did we embarrass you?"

My tears came all at once.

"You didn't."

But he slowly crushed the bill into a ball.

"It's just, standing here, I feel like a joke."

That night, I reached out to a lawyer I could speak with in my own language.

【I want a divorce.】

The reply came. 【The baby was just born. Do you have birth records, missed-call logs, photos of your living conditions? These will affect custody arrangements.】

Upstairs, Tom was still soothing Yuna.

"Don't cry. She's in a bad way after the birth, it's not aimed at you."

Yuna asked through her tears, "Then would you make me leave, for her sake?"

Tom said in a low voice, "No."

I switched off the recording.

This time, he'd made the decision for me, in his own words.